Cell Phones

Oppo A83 Review & Pros And Cons

- Analysis by KJ David

The Oppo A83 is a 2018 semi-high-end phablet that's heavily marketed for its selfie capabilities and large display, although neither are real head-turners, at least as far as our review of its pros and cons is concerned.

For starters, its 5.7-inch facade, despite offering lots of screen real estate, settles for an underwhelming HD+ 1440 x 720 resolution and a TFT screen architecture -- the latter being one of the cheapest display types on the market. In comparison, many models in our list of notable phablets tout at least FHD/FHD+ (1080p) interfaces and use the more-sophisticated OLED and AMOLED screen solutions. These cons may cause some phablet buyers to pull back, despite its rarely-seen (as of its release) 18:9 aspect ratio being a huge pro.

On the imaging front, the A83 banks on an 8-megapixel selfie camera embedded with Oppo's AI beauty recognition technology , while a 13-megapixel camera coupled with an Ultra HD Mode for up-to-50MP shots is in charge of regular picture-taking. Its rear and front cams may have unpromising resolutions compared to those rocked by the top-ranking camera phones , but injecting software enhancements, like the ones mentioned above, sounds like a nice touch from Oppo.

Moving on, the A83's processing specs are made up a tolerable 3GB RAM and an octa-core MediaTek Helio P23 processor that brings to mind our list of the fastest smartphones by running at up to 2.5GHz . For storage, it comes with 32GB of internal memory, which can be expanded by up to 256GB .

As far as phablets go, the A83's 7.7mm body depth sounds appreciable, especially since a lot of its rivals in this market segment measure roughly 8.6mm thick. It also features a facial recognition system that could prove useful when users need to unlock the phone with wet fingers or while wearing gloves. Sadly, NFC (Near Field Communication) won't be part of the action , since Oppo left it out of the A83's mix of pros and cons, which feels awkward for a 2018 Q1 release. Rounding out its feature set are a hearty-enough 3180mAh battery and Oppo's self-branded ColorOS 3.2 (based on Android 7.1 Nougat).

With all that said, the Oppo A83 winds up as a middle-class phablet for users who are willing to trade off some high-class niceties on the display front for a powerful (in terms of raw clock rate) processor and an AI-powered selfie camera.